Can't wait to have some SEX!

Did the headline catch your attention? If you like knitting you probably have the same feeling since sex means Stash Enhancement eXperience, ie buying yarn, in knitters jargon. Ok, I admit that I didn't know that either.

You start learning how to knit and soon get familiar with terms like cables, yarn over, dpns and blocking and think that you have everything under control. But then you join a community like Ravelry and suddenly people around you talk about frogs and UFOs and KALs and LYS and you don't have a clue what they're talking about.

Here are some words you're guaranteed to hear in knitting circles:
To frog - to unravel a knitted piece, comes from the sound of "rip it, rip it".
KAL - a knit along.
LYS - Local yarn shop.
UFO - unfinished object. (A wip that has been neglected or abandoned.)
WIP - work in progress.
ISO - in search of.
And my favourite; yarn barf - a big lump of yarn that accidentally gets pulled out of a new centre-pull ball, when you’re trying to find the end.

Yarn Barf via

And some that maybe aren't that common but that I thought was worth listing:
Tink - take out knitting stitch by stitch. It's "knit" backwards.
Frog pond - a storage place for knitted stuff waiting to be frogged. Hey I always wanted a frog pond, didn't know that I had one already.
Pooling - when one color in a variegeted yarn bunches together in an area.
Toad - Trashed Objects Abandoned in Disgust.
Pigs - Projects In Grocery Sacks. I have too many pigs in my closet...
Tarn - T-shirt yarn.

I did it, I bought a spider! No, I mean a dragonfly! No...I mean...

..a spindle!
Not long ago I blogged about my newest google-research-topic which is how to spin your own yarn with a drop spindle. And now I have finally bought one! Can't wait until it arrives. With four weeks of vacation coming up in July, there will be som serious spinning!

I always seem to forget the Swedish word for spindle, which is "slända" - pronounced "slenn-dah", and instead say spindle with a Swedish pronounciation "spin-dell". And that's the Swedish word for spider. So when I confessed to my spouse that I had bought a spider, he was confused. Then I said that I had bought a "slända", but he was still confused since "slända" also means dragonfly! But of course he suspected that it was something fibre-related... I wonder why...

Steel on your needles?

Do check out Habu Textiles website if you're looking for fresh inspiration. They have many unusual yarns in subtle color ranges. Unusual in that sense that they are made by stainless steel, paper and copper!

This is how they describe their wool steinless steel yarn: ... the core is stainless steel and wool is wrapped around the core. Because of the stainless steel, there is a memory in the yarn. Create something, twist it around! It will stay in that shape unless you straighten it out. 

 Doesn't it sound great? I'd love to try this out.

Alpacas - the animal, not the yarn

I like alpaca yarn. I have never been unhappy with an alpaca garment. It's soft and warm and has a nice texture. So I'd just wanted to share some pictures of the fabulous animal it comes from. Alpacas originate from South America and looks like llamas, only smaller. These three cool looking dudes look like they have really strong and sympathetic personalities!

Pictures by Kerstin Joensson.